Credit where its due

Everybody knows I don't like Hudd but I have to admit, he made the difference against Citeh. Ok so when he came on he almost immediately got booked for a foul which was not necessary (but due to him being too slow) and within minutes he could have been sent off for a second silly foul.

But, he made forward passes, picking out Defoe and Bale and THAT made the difference. When Dembele and Parker play it is too slow and negative. Did anyone else hear the crowd boo Parker for passing back to Dawson for the umpteenth time when we were attacking? Dembele goes past players and that looks good but he gives the ball away too often for me and he does not create enough chances for others.

Parker is good at breaking up attacks against us and gets back to cover well, but who on earth told him he could dribble and shoot?? So when you have those two in the centre of midfield there is nothing going forward that the wingers and strikers can feed off.

And Sigursson had a nightmare game with the ball bouncing off him in all directions. I like him normally but this is one game he will want to forget. Ade - well yet another "where was he" game. So disappointing....again.

Do you think though that T'Hudd looked good because of how we played?
I didn't see much difference between the style of his play at the weekend and the style of how he's played in numerous other games.
What went through my mind, is that I 'perceive' that we play slower now - mainly because of the congestion in playing through the middle rather than wide I think - so that gives T'Hudd more time on the ball. I would guess that under 'arry the game could quite easily pass a player like T'Hudd by - as the emphasis seemed to be more on wing play and again what I perceived as a faster switch from defence to attack using short, quick passing.

I didn't say he played well - I said he made the difference. As usual, he showed he is too slow to be top PL player and he gives too many free kicks away as a result of that. What that game highlighted to me is when we play with Parker and Dembele together in the middle of the park we are not actually passing the ball forward that much. Parker passes sideways and backwards more often than not and when he does occasionally pass forward it is rarely a good pass. He also suddenly tries these long, desperate dribbles and actually ends up either being tackled or running off the pitch.

Dembele slides past opponents midfield players very smoothly but then runs into a back 4. I have not actually seen him pass the ball forward that much.

When Hudd came on he very quickly picked out Defoe and Bale with passes from midfield and we looked a different side. I haven't changed my mind about Hudd but it made me realise why we have been creating so few chances lately.

As for the slow play, again, if you have players like Parker (who passes sideways and backwards) and Dembele who likes to dribble, you are not going to play quick football are you! Earlier this season we were giving the ball to Lennon and Bale's feet and they were taking on defenders and going around them. When they have not played we have struggled to even make any chances. Adebyor is never going to be quick enough or try hard enough. But what happened against Citeh was that suddenly there was someone who was prepared to knock the ball forward or even over the top for the strikers to get on the end of it - and it worked.